Replay of history?

Friday 23rd December, 2022

It looks as if we were witnessing a replay of what played out during the UNP-led UNF government between 2001 and 2004, a notable exception being that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has secured the executive presidency, and the Rajapaksas, who wrap themselves in the flag, have chosen to play second fiddle to him and support the UNP’s economic agenda, which they once rejected.

The UNF administration (2001-2004) stood accused of trying to ‘regain Sri Lanka’ by selling vital state assets. What is happening on the economic front at present reminds us of the UNP’s ‘Regaining Sri Lanka’ programme, which led to the divestiture of some valuable assets such as Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and the bunkering facility at the Colombo Port, in the early noughties.

Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to undo what the UNF regime had done under the Regaining Sri Lanka programme and made that one of the main planks of his 2005 presidential election campaign. He obtained a popular mandate to carry out his promise among other things. In fact, on his watch, the status quo ante was restored anent Sri Lankan Insurance and the port bunkering facility, thanks to a judicial intervention based on a COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on those questionable deals. Today, the Rajapaksas are supporting the ongoing privatisation programme to the hilt, and Sri Lanka Insurance, and a section of the Colombo Port land that could be used for setting up a bunkering facility are among the assets up for sale!

Erik Solheim has come back. What’s up his sleeve, this time around, is anyone’s guess. He had himself appointed Norway’s special peace envoy here, but sullied his reputation by being partial to the LTTE. At the height of the war, in 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa almost threw him out of Temple Trees for claiming that Prabhakaran could not be defeated. Besides functioning as President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s International Climate Advisor, Solheim has reportedly undertaken to promote investment for Sri Lanka! One can only hope that he is not trying to bring in another Trojan horse all the way from Oslo.

Curiously, the Rajapaksas have not protested against Solheim’s appointment or his involvement in investment promotion. Perhaps, they have taken a liking to him or even consider him one of them because of some serious allegations against him. He had to quit as the head of the United Nations Environment Programme, in 2018, following an investigation the UN auditors conducted into the use of public funds by his agency. He was accused of overspending, among other things. No wonder he is in the good books of Sri Lankan leaders who are notorious for squandering public funds!

If Prabhakaran knew the situation in Sri Lanka, he would rue the day he closed the Mavil Aru sluice gates, resuming war, which caused him to meet his Waterloo in the Nandikadal lagoon, in 2009. Had he desisted from violating the Norwegian-crafted ceasefire, which was beneficial to the LTTE, and exercised patience, perhaps, he would have been able to achieve his goal without firing a single shot. A bankrupt country cannot fight a war, can it?

In 1994, President Chandrika Kumaratunga offered Prabhakaran the entire Northern Province for ten years without elections, provided he eschewed violence. A wag says that if he had been around, the current administration would have offered him both North and East in a bid to earn forex. After all, it is seeking the assistance of LTTE sympathisers to shore up the country’s foreign currency reserves!

Karl Marx has said history repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce. In this country, it seems to be repeating itself as a black comedy, and dark humour found therein is reminiscent of the motif in Joseph Heller’s Catch -22, which is quite relevant to the present Sri Lankan context.